Apparently breaking the veil of secrecy that has shrouded their upcoming double album, Nine Inch Nails have posted 65 seconds of new music at their official website.

Fans who went to www.nin.com Friday night saw the usual flashing "NIN" logo and heard a barrage of static; then the page fell silent and black. But those who hit the reload button were routed to another page (www.nin.com/one.swf), which contained a Shockwave file of the eerie music -- seemingly an excerpt from The Fragile.

"The time is now to break the silence," said 18-year-old Evan Moore, webmaster of the NIN fan site "Seems Like Salvation," in an e-mail after hearing the clip.

"This new teaser at [the NIN website] reminds me of an endless dream of hidden voices," Moore wrote. "It's as if I'm floating on my back with a one-person wooden raft beneath me gently rocking with a breeze pushing the current of water through a large sky risen cave as the echoing tune loops in my head. 'All I've undergone, I will keep on,' Trent says."

Those lyrics are what some fans have deciphered from the repeated phrases whispered on the clip. The music is anchored by a haunting keyboard loop, which is later joined by subtle clanging.

Reznor has spent nearly two years in his New Orleans studio working on The Fragile, which is tentatively planned for a September release, according to an interview with Reznor in the current

Rolling Stone. It will be the industrial band's first album in five years. Reznor has remained relatively quiet about the project except for a vague and mysterious advertising campaign and a few interviews.

The posting of the new clip has an air of mystery about it, too. On Sunday, the main page of the website did not appear to route fans to the clip, though the music was still accessible at www.nin.com/one.swf.

Moore said he heard the clip late Friday night after hitting reload on the main page immediately following the static. He said he was still receiving e-mails Sunday night from other fans who were trying different techniques to retrieve the file.

"I have to say that the wait [for the album] is sure paying off," he said. "I love the anticipation, the hype ... We've waited patiently for five long years for a new Nine Inch Nails album. Trent is giving us two."

In the Rolling Stone article, Reznor was quoted as saying The Fragile is "one of those records that doesn't jump out of the speakers."

The album is slated to contain more than two dozen songs, including the single "The Day the World Went Away." Some songs, including "The

Wretched" and "Starfuckers," are said to sound like typical Nine Inch Nails rockers, while others, such as "La Mer" ("The Sea") and "Into the Void," are "detours," Rolling Stone reported.

"It's real hard for me to have any degree of objectivity," Reznor is quoted as saying. "People say, 'What's it sound like?' I don't f---ing know. I like it. It's by far the best record I've ever done."

Nine Inch Nails' 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, featured the hit "Head Like a Hole" (RealAudio excerpt). NIN have also released the album The Downward

Spiral (1994) and a number of remix collections, including the

Broken and Fixed EPs (both 1992) and Further Down the

Spiral (1995).